Superfund Adds U.s. Waste Sites

Thirty-two federal facilities, including two in Illinois, were added Tuesday to the Superfund national priority list of the nation`s worst hazardous waste sites.

They were among 99 new sites added by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, bringing the total to 951.

``This is the first time that federal facilities have been placed on the national priority list,`` said Priscilla Flattery, an EPA spokeswoman.

The federal sites in Illinois are the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge near Marion and the Joliet Army ammunition plant manufacturing area.

Federal facilities were placed on the list to give them priority and provide EPA assistance in cleanups, but Flattery noted that federal departments will pay for waste removal operations.

``Superfund money will not be used to clean up federal sites,`` said Flattery, referring to the $10 billion authorized by Congress last October for removal of toxic wastes that threaten the environment or public health. Many of the facilities are operated by the Defense Department or the Energy Department.

In the six-state Great Lakes region, 17 waste sites were added to the Superfund list. This brought the total to 228, the highest of any region.

``The region traditionally has been high,`` said Virgina Donohue, an EPA spokesman in Chicago, ``primarily because the region has about 25 percent of the population and 20 percent of the industry in the country. We have a lot of older, heavier industry.`` New Jersey leads among states with 96 sites on the Superfund list, followed by New York with 63, Pennsylvania with 61 and Michigan with 58.

In the six-state Midwestern region, Illinois had three new additions, including the two federal sites and Parsons Casket and Hardware Co., Belvidere.

The Crab Orchard refuge is contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyl

(PCB) wastes from the Sangamo Electric Co., which is polluting Crab Orchard Lake, a source of drinking water for the refuge, a federal prison and the city of Marion.